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One of Indonesia's largest banks, Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), reported a 20.1 percent year-on-year (y/y) increase to IDR 13.62 trillion (approx. USD $1.0 billion) in consolidated net profit in full-year 2017. This strong growth pace came on the back of a 12.2 percent (y/y) increase in credit growth to IDR 441.3 trillion (approx. USD $32.9 billion).
Indonesian financial institution Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) targets to see double-digit profit growth in 2018 supported by rising credit growth. Suprajarto, President Director of BRI, said rising revenue and the implementation of efficiency measures will boost the bank's performance in 2018. Moreover, Indonesia's banking sector is currently "hot", reflected by surging shares of the big listed Indonesian banks on the Indonesia Stock Exchange.
Indonesian financial institution Bank Kesejahteraan Ekonomi delayed its initial public offering (IPO) on the Indonesia Stock Exchange because it welcomed a new investor. Earlier Bank Kesejahteraan Ekonomi planned to conduct its IPO at the start of 2018. It still targets to become a publicly listed company this year but in the second half of 2018, the earliest.
Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (in Indonesian: Otoritas Jasa Keuangan, or OJK), the government agency that regulates and supervises Indonesia's financial services sector, urges the nation's sharia banks to become more selective in terms of disbursing credit in order to strengthen the quality of loans in Indonesia's Islamic finance industry.
Although Indonesian consumers are increasingly spending on leisure activities and entertainment (rather than purchasing goods), local banks are still hesitant to disburse credit to sectors that support these leisure activities, such as the hotel industry.
Several big state-controlled banks in Indonesia posted double-digit profit growth in the third quarter of 2017, extending the positive corporate performance that was posted by these banks in the preceding quarters. This performance comes on the back of sliding reserves in line with rising credit growth, an improvement in the quality of banks' loans and lower non-performing loan (NPL) ratios.
Haru Koesmahargyo, Finance Director of Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), said the company's new branch office in East Timor (Timor Leste), which was opened several months ago, already managed to open about 20,000 new accounts for local clients. Considering the limited time-span and the limited local population in the region, these results are very positive. Also in terms of transactions the East Timor branch shows good growth.
Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), one of Indonesia's largest financial institutions, will accelerate the migration of its ATM network and operating units to BRIsat, the company's satellite that was launched on 20 June 2016. Indra Utoyo, Director of Digital Banking and Technology at BRI, said many - but not all - of the bank's ATMs and operating units have already been migrated to BRIsat.
Indonesia's purchasing power may not be as weak as initially assumed in the first half of 2017. It could be that consumers and businesses now actually prefer to save their funds on banks than to spend and invest. Based on data from the Financial Services Authority (OJK) third-party funds in Indonesia's banking sector (saving and deposit accounts) expanded 11.2 percent year-on-year (y/y) to IDR 5,012.5 trillion (approx. USD $3,775.4 billion) in May 2017.
Over the past week shares of Indonesian securities brokerage company Minna Padi Investama Sekuritas surged drastically from IDR 408 to IDR 985 a piece, a whopping 141 percent rise. What is behind this impressive performance?
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The government of Indonesia listened to the criticism that emerged after it decided to set a rather low threshold for bank accounts that are to become subject to the automatic bank information exchange program. Through Finance Ministry regulation PMK No. 70/PMK.03/2017 Indonesia's tax authorities obtain access to information on accounts held at financial institutions, including bank accounts. This new regulation makes it possible to check whether tax payers indeed fulfill their tax obligations.
There exists some resistance against the Indonesian government's recently announced regulation that gives tax authorities access to information on accounts held at financial institutions, including bank accounts. The regulation aims to contribute to a more transparent financial system as well as to boost the government's tax revenue realization (tax evaders will need to be more careful now authorities can monitor private and corporate bank accounts).
The Salim Group, one of Indonesia's biggest conglomerates (owning leading companies in various sectors of the Indonesian economy), has high ambitions in the nation's banking sector after having acquired a majority stake in Bank Ina Perdana in early March 2017. For the first time in 19 years the conglomerate, founded by Sudono Salim in 1972, is back in Indonesia's banking industry.
Indonesia's Tax Office now has more power to check whether people and companies indeed pay taxes. Last week the Indonesian government basically scrapped the existence of banking data secrecy by introducing a new regulation that gives the nation's tax authorities access to information on accounts held at financial institutions, including bank accounts. The new regulation should contribute to a more transparent financial system and boost the government's (much-need) tax revenue realization. However, Indonesian parliament still needs to approve the new regulation.
Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN), market leader in Indonesia's mortgage loans sector, is expected to maintain steadily growing earnings supported by House Ownership Credit growth (in Indonesian: Kredit Pemilikan Rumah, abbreviated KPR) and stable financing costs. In fact, RHB Securities and Bahana Securities believe credit growth of BTN will outperform average credit growth in Indonesia's banking sector in full-year 2017. Both securities firm set their credit growth target for BTN at 18 percent (y/y), boosted by subsidized KPR.
Indonesia's gross national savings per gross domestic product (GDP) remained stagnant according to a statement from the nation's Financial Services Authority (OJK) earlier this week. This indicates that Indonesian residents do not manage to save money, but rather focus on consumption. Based on data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Indonesia's gross national savings per GDP stood at 30.87 percent in 2015. For comparison, figures of Singapore and China stood at 46.73 percent and 48.87 percent, respectively.
The corporate earnings of Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) up to the third quarter of 2016 are in line with expectations. Net income of Indonesia's fourth-largest lender (by assets) rose 28.7 percent (y/y) to IDR 7.7 trillion (approx. USD $529 million) compared to net income in the same period one year earlier (IDR 5.99 trillion), supported by a 21 percent (y/y) increase in credit disbursement to IDR 372 trillion (approx. USD $28.6 billion) and the higher net interest income margin (6.2 percent).
Tomorrow (05/02), Statistics Indonesia is scheduled to release Indonesia's official full-year 2015 economic growth figure. Nearly all analysts expect to see a figure that reflects the continuation of slowing economic growth. Southeast Asia's largest economy expanded 5.0 percent in 2014 and this is expected to have eased further to 4.7 percent or 4.8 percent in 2015 on the back of (interrelated) sluggish global growth, low commodity prices, and weak export performance. Domestically, Indonesia has or had to cope with high interest rates and inflation (hence curtailing people's purchasing power and consumption as well as business expansion).
Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (OJK), the central government's agency that regulates and supervises Indonesia's financial services sector, needs to hire hundreds of new staff in order to safeguard monitoring of the nation's banking sector and to enhance its early warning system in order to detect possible corruption cases. As up to 350 OJK workers are expected to return to the central bank per 1 January 2017, good monitoring of the banking sector is in jeopardy.
Indonesia's Financial Services Authority (OJK), the government agency that regulates and supervises the nation's financial services sector, is preparing a new regulation that requires conventional financial institutions in Indonesia to spin off their Islamic financial units before 17 October 2024. Islamic finance or Islamic banking is a type of banking that is in accordance to the principles of sharia (Islamic law). Based on the regulation, those financial institutions that generate at least 50 percent of their capital through Islamic finance have to comply with the new rule.
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